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Save the e-mail service.

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At the time when the current leadership of CPCUG told of their thoughts to discontinue e-mail service for the general membership, I wrote that I believed it to be a poor course of action. Posting the announcement of their decision to do just that late in the day before a holiday and during the summer vacation season was perfectly ridiculous.

Additionally, I find what amounts to 14 business days (since I will be on vacation in July) for me to correct what is now my problem a bit short especially since the service is continuing for ”...the few official accounts used by active officers and directors.”

I have been an active member in good standing for 20 years and this has been my primary e-mail account for the entire time. Pulling up roots and moving is an involved task at best.

I wish to offer an alternative; I would like to purchase 90 days of the current e-mail service (until Oct 1st, 2014). This will afford me the opportunity to transition to another provider in an orderly manner. And frankly, we all deserve that.

Please try to find a way to continue CPCUG Email. We long-time CPCUG members really appreciate all the work volunteers have done to keep our email running through the years. If continuing the service requires funding to pay for professional help, we are willing to pay more. However, the proposed abrupt discontinuation of the email at the end of July would cause us huge problems. Please consider ways to continue our email or at least extend it for several more months.

The paradigm of paid for e-mail has long become extinct. There are several free e-mail services like gmail and there are other services that are a part of a phone account or web service. $400 per month is an awful lot of money. Plus there is the time that a volunteer has to spend managing it. We've got to move on.

As I do not see it mentioned in this thread, where does the "$400" value come from?
In review of CPCUG's Form 990 from 2012, the group seems to have had a growth in funds over the last five years.
Also, I will assume that the "phone account" is not free; you are still paying for e-mail even if not a individual line item. Finally, as I stated in a previous thread, "free e-mail" has cost associated with it, primarily an agreed to loss of privacy.

The $400 comes from the amount that we pay our ISP for email services every month. We've always used a dedicated hosting account (we have our own server at the ISP) and have paid accordingly for that space/service.

From the latest "leadership" posting:
>> This change is forced upon the Board because CPCUG lacks the volunteers
Yes, all the volume of requests for volunteers ignored by the members over the years. Guess you could prove me wrong posting a list of all the "requests" for help with e-mail. Yes, a listing from the last two years of all the requests for volunteers to help with e-mail. Small thing...should be alble to whip that up real quick.
>> to continue our no charge email services for all members.
Obviously I am confused. I thought an e-mail account was included in are annual dues we paid. So, begs the question, what exactly are the dues used for?
Hmmm, and just when did CPCUG last post a budget?
>> It also costs us far more than it is worth and lacks the hosting
>> responsiveness that justified the original partnership.
I strongly believe that if the Board had ANY desire to continue offering this service to its members, I am sure that it could have. Ths sad truth, it appears, is they wish us off their backs...except for a few really important people.
The members of CPCUG were worthy of a process better than this.